RS

EDITOR OF REDSTATE

Again I Say Fight!

“If you will not fight for the right when you can easily win without bloodshed, if you will not fight when your victory will be sure and not too costly, you may come to the moment when you will have to fight with all the odds against you and only a small chance of survival. There may even be a worse case: you may have to fight when there is no hope of victory, because it is better to perish than to live as slaves.”

— Winston Churchill

“The lesson from this election should be the following: FIGHT.”

They haven’t even won the election yet, and Congressional Republicans are already looking to compromise. I know it doesn’t come as much of a surprise, but it does show yet again how out of touch the establishment crowd is. The gains made in November will be in spite of them, not because of them, and it will require an ongoing and permanent vigilance by all of us in the movement to ensure they don’t sell us out. On Monday, Wall Street Journal readers were treated to the following in a profile of Rep. Kevin McCarthy*, who is likely to be the next Whip, if Republicans take control of the House:

Republicans on the campaign trail are bashing the president and his agenda and some are vowing to shut down Washington if they don’t get their way. Behind the scenes, key party members are talking a different game.A number of House Republicans, including some who are likely to be in the leadership, are pushing a post-election strategy aimed at securing concrete legislation, with the goal of showing they can translate general principles into specific action.Among the ideas is to bring a series of bills to the floor, as often as once a week, designed to cut spending in some way. Longer term, GOP leaders say they recognize they may have to compromise with Democrats in tackling broader problems.If they recapture the House, Republicans say they are wary of following the example of the class of 1994, which shut down the government in a standoff with President Bill Clinton. Top Republicans contend that passing legislation, or at least making a good faith effort to do so, will earn them more credibility with voters than refusing to waver from purist principles.

You have to be kidding me. Compromise is the lesson the congress critters are learning from this election cycle? I don’t want compromise. I want people who will fight for principle. I know President Obama will still be in the White House for two more years, and Democrats in the Senate will have a filibuster to stall our agenda, but I don’t want people who give up before the battle has been had. Obama is a fighter. If our guys are compromisers, they lose. Fighters always beat compromisers.The lesson from this election should be the following: FIGHT. Fight the battle, and if we need to send you reinforcements, we will. It’s not about “overpromising.” Voters are not idiots—they recognize when their side is out-numbered. They want their politicians to be who they say they are (so if you’re running against spending, don’t vote for new programs and request earmarks) and to fight the other side. It’s not exactly rocket science. Thankfully, there are some who get it. Rep. Mike Pence—and only God knows how this guy has managed to not drink the kool aid in his time in leadership—is giving a speech tonight, and in remarks obtained by Redstate, he will pointedly address this sentiment to compromise:

Now, the last few days there has been some talk about how Republicans could avoid the “mistakes” of 1995 by seeking compromise with this administration. The last Republican Congress didn’t suffer from too little compromise, it suffered from too much. Republicans lost their majority because of too much compromise on spending and deficits and debt. We didn’t come this far to return to the big spending Republicanism of the recent past. If House Republicans get a second chance at a first impression—if the American people give us the privilege of leading their Congress again—let me be clear:There can be no compromise that allows more borrowing, more spending, more deficits and more debt. There can be no compromise that allows a tax increase on any American. There can be no compromise on defending the cherished values of the American people. There can be no compromise that leads to more taxpayer-funded bailouts. There can be no compromise on stopping their government takeover of health care. And if I didn’t make myself clear, no compromise! House Republicans will not rest until we repeal ObamaCare lock, stock and barrel!

Congressman, we could not agree more. Here is hoping we send you and all of the other battle-hardy conservatives reinforcements soon.

*It’s also important to remember that while McCarthy is a good guy and I appreciate both his work in building a new Republican majority and his willingness to highlight rising stars here at RedState, he is most definitely not by any stretch of the imagination outside of California, an across the board conservative. In fact, I don’t know any conservative in in his district who thinks he is a conservative and I know lots of conservatives in his district. The guy tried to have the pro-life plank yanked out of the California GOP’s platform for God’s sake! He is, to his credit, pretty good on business issues.